The Queen- Part Two
by Saint
Summary: Check out part one! Ever want to toy with something you just know that the show can't? Ever want to really screw with the characters? Then hopefully you'll enjoy this little twist of time and fate.


Ok ya'll… yes I said "ya'll." I'm from southern Maryland, so all ya'll can deal with it. Anyways, here's part two of the Queen story that I promised. I'm really having fun with the characters… hopefully I'm not getting entirely too out of hand with it all… anyways… enjoy 

***

# The Queen

Part Two

Xander, Giles and Willow ran down through the tunnels as fast as they could move their feet, hoping against hope that they could get to Buffy in time. She was in the underground sewer and tunnel system that many of Sunnydale's vampires used for lairs and walking right into the middle of a trap. 

The day before Buffy had caught a vampire in the Magic Box stealing supplies and quickly had the demon subdued. They thought at the time that he must have been a young vampire, recently sired, simply because he was so easy to capture and they managed to get information out of him so easily. He was one of Spike's new gang and he said he needed the stuff for a ritual William the Bloody was planning on performing soon.

Usually, the Scoobies would have thought it was odd that Spike would have been into using magic to get by. He commonly just used the "maim and destroy" approach to getting what he wanted. Their skepticism died quickly though once Giles noticed one of the books the vampire had been carrying had a ritual that he had never seen. After they dusted the vampire, Giles took a look into the book and discovered that it held a ritual that could make a vampire free from it's usual restrictions, such as sunlight and wooden stakes for time. This meant that if Spike could pull it off, the spell could give him a brief period of invulnerability, long enough, though, to do some serious damage or maybe, to kill a slayer…

Buffy had set out the next night to patrol with promises that until Giles had fully examined the book, she would not go after Spike and take any risks. Apparently, she changed her mind once she was out on patrol. They didn't know why she had gone into the tunnels, maybe she was just chasing a vamp she spotted while on patrol, maybe she was hoping to take Spike out before he could finish the ritual, but for whatever, she went and now, she was deep inside the bowels of Sunnydale's sewers without the knowledge that the book and the spell were fake. 

Giles had been studying the book and somewhere along the line, realized that the ink on the book was very new, which made the "ancient ritual book" a very real fraud. When the three of them had gone out to inform Buffy, they only found her knapsack and jacket at the entrance to one of the crypts that lead into the underground tunnels. 

Running hard now, the three searched and screamed and yelled but to no avail, there were no replies. Each member was armed with crossbows and wore crosses of protection but somehow the weapons made them move only faster s they reminded the team of what kind or mortal danger Buffy was in. So they screamed and ran and screamed some more, hoping for the best, but fearing for the worst. 

Xander rounded a corner and finally saw something, but nothing that he ever wanted to see. It was Buffy, her arms broken and lying limp at her sides being sucked dry by Spike, who had some 8 or 9 vampires holding the unbroken parts of Buffy down so she couldn't fight the demons teeth away. 

"NOOOOOOOooooo!" Xander screamed and fired his crossbow without thinking before he did. He just wanted to save Buffy.

For the very first time in his life, Xander felt like he did something right and that the right thing he did meant something. The arrow that his crossbow released struck true, straight through the back of Spike and into his heart. William the Bloody was dust. 

Xander, still thinking only of Buffy, rushed at the vampires that held her with crossbows shooting and protective crosses as visible as possible. Seeing Spike, their leader, dusted, they all fled in fear of their attacker and disappeared into the tunnels. By this point, Giles and Willow had entered the small dank room and rushed to Buffy as Xander returned from running off her attackers. 

Giles was the first over Buffy and began to lift her up and test her pulse. He almost dropped her in disbelief, turning pale, and then grabbed her firm again and tested for a pulse again. After the second attempt, the Watchers tears began to flow freely for his daughter and he pulled her lifeless body in close to himself. Willow collapsed onto the ground sobbing. Xander fell to his knees next to Giles, this couldn't be happening…

In a cold sweat, Xander flew up from his bed; crying in his sleep had woken him up. He looked around at his bed and covers and Anya sleeping soundly beside him. He couldn't handle this anymore. Almost every night since she died he had dreamt about finding Buffy in the lustful embrace of Spike and then realizing she was dead. Every time the dream started he knew that he was dreaming, he knew that he could end the dream if he could force himself to wake up, but instead of waking up he kept watching, kept living the dream out, hoping that one time the ending would be different and they would find Buffy alive, Spike dust, and the last eight months only a dream. 

But the last eight months hadn't been a dream. They had been real. Buffy died. She rose as a vampire and now Sunnydale was her playground. She killed at will, without regard for the consequences. She ruled the vampires in Sunnydale like she was a centuries-old master. No demon crossed her, and most of the mortals that defied her, or even simply crossed her path, met a merciless death.

He remembered her funeral service. It was beautiful. Most of their high school graduating class came back from wherever they had been at college for it. Many of her new found college friends came and cried along with those who had known her for years. It was like the best thing in Sunnydale was gone. No, the best thing in Sunnydale was gone. 

It wasn't until Joyce turned up dead in her home, 2 weeks later, that they had any idea that Buffy had been raised a vampire. There was a note carved into the wall and smeared with Joyce's blood on the wall that read: "I have only begun Mommy." 

The Police immediately began searching for nut cases or serial killer types, but the recently disbanded Scoobies knew what was going on. They didn't want to know it; they didn't want to think it, but it was happening. Somehow, Spike had gotten Buffy to drink his blood while he was draining her. She had become the very thing she was born to destroy. Sunnydale was in dire straights. 

Frustrated and still upset, Xander got out of bed and headed down to the refrigerator. He needed something to calm his nerves so he could go back to sleep again. Finding some of the little milk that hadn't gone bad in the rotten frige, Xander sat down at the table. He was wearing nothing but his boxers, so the cold floor and the cold milk made him shiver in the dark of Giles kitchen. Somehow though, it was just right for him to sit and think. 

***

Faith woke again, still hanging from her chains, still naked and positioned above a pit, still being ignored by the vampires that walked past. She was disoriented. The last time she fell asleep wasn't a natural "I'm-tired-and-it's-sleepy-time" sleep, it was more of a… what kind of sleep was it?

Then it hit her. She remembered why she had fallen asleep. She hadn't fallen asleep. She had passed out, not only from exhaustion or pain from hanging from her wrists and arms for months, but because she was shocked. Buffy was a vampire. Buffy was behind this death, this living hell.

"I'll kill her!" Faith screamed at the few vampires that were within earshot. "I'm going to kill Buffy! Do you hear me? She's going to die!" 

For the first time in eight months someone looked at Faith. Whole the other vampires in the area turned and walked away, the one closest turned and looked the fallen Slayer right in the eyes. He even walked right to the edge of the pit and pointed at her.

"The Queen will not have your insolence!" the demon spoke harshly. "You will be dead soon Slayer. Don't fear that. Simply know that it is coming and the Queen will be the one who will end your worthless existence."

Faith hung there shocked. Besides the fact that she was being spoken to for the first time since a vampire eight months ago had said, "the information is in this room here," she was hearing the vamp call Buffy "The Queen." She was their leader? Maybe she should have figured that out, considering that a normal person becomes immensely strong once they are "vamped-out," she supposed a Slayer could become almost a goddess. That kinda sounded appealing, aside from the whole dying and being buried before she could rise stuff.

"_Buffy_ is going to die!" Faith screamed again at the vampire once she got her wits back. This time the vampire simply laughed and turned and walked away. "Do you hear me? _Buffy_ is going to die! I will kill her!" Faith called after the demon in vain. He was gone and again, she was alone.

***

Riley woke again, still in pain. He was sitting in the dark somewhere, chained to a slimy stone wall. His whole body ached from his first beating and the new lump on his head from his encounter with the Queen was throbbing. Why the heck did they have to knock him out again? Moving even a little-bit hurt his head and all his muscles and each time he did, the sharp breathe he took drew onto his tongue the dried blood on his lips and mouth, making this bitter experience only more wonderful.

Buffy… Her name was Buffy something… Buffy Summers. She sat in the eighth or ninth row in Maggie's psychology class. He remembered now. He admired her beauty, especially her smile. He remembered watching for her every Monday, Wednesday and Friday when the class was about to begin just so he could catch a glimpse of her talking and laughing. 

Then one day she didn't show up for class. Come to think of it, her little red headed friend didn't show up that day either. He found out only a week later when the red head, Willow something, returned to class, that Buffy had died. He didn't ask Willow about it, naturally, but he overheard some people outside the class that day discussing that she had died from some weird cult thing. 

It had been almost eight months now since that, and with all the fighting, the new vampires and demons, plus his heavy workload, he had almost completely forgotten about Buffy Summers. Funny that she could become the leader of such a large group of vampires so quickly. From his research before coming to Sunnydale, it usually took Vampires centuries before they can command numerous amounts of other vampires effectively. Buffy seemed to have done it over night. 

Gathering the strength he needed to lift his head, Riley looked up to see where, exactly, he was. It was cold and dark and only a few meters wide. All the walls were made of stone and covered in slime and the single door to the room seemed to be of some sort of heavy metal. The light from a tiny window in the door provided the only light into the room but after a while Riley's eyes began to adjust. He could see more details now; the bench on the wall across from him and the handle and lock on the door. 

Looking to his left Riley found something he definitely didn't expect. There was another man chained to the wall to his left, apparently asleep and very… dirty. He seemed to be about as big as Riley, maybe a little bigger and he had a shaved head. His clothes, all black, were torn and bloody and covered in the same slime that covered the walls. Obviously, this guy had been here a while.

"Hey buddy," Riley whispered, unafraid. "Hey, wake up." 

The man shifted where he sat a little and spoke in a deep, slow and deliberate voice. "I am not asleep, stranger. I am just sitting here, not exerting any strength. You would do the same if she has the same things planned for you as she does for me." 

"Look, my name is Special Agent Riley Finn and I…" Riley was interrupted by the sound on the man chuckling softly to himself. "What's so funny?"

"You think you're still alive," the stranger laughed as he spoke. "You may still be human, but you are not alive, not down here friend. Special Agent Really Thin doesn't exist anymore. You are simply her plaything now."

"Look, I'm still alive and well, buddy," Riley said annoyed, " and it's Finn, Riley Finn. If you'd look up for a bloody minute you'd see I not thin either."

"Looking up doesn't really help," the man answered as he slowly lifted his head, "when you have no eyes."

Riley turned away for a second at the sight of this man with his eyes gouged out, only deep sockets where they had been remaining. When he turned back to face the man, he was smiling in Riley's direction. His smile had only a few cracked teeth.

"I'm pretty disgusting now, aren't I?" he asked sounding amused. "If you could believe this, I used to be pretty attractive, at least that's what they said. I even had eyes. Once she got a hold of me though, she made everyday hurt, and now I look like this. Pretty gruesome, huh?"

"No, it's not that bad," Riley said trying to sound genuine. 

"I think I like you kid," the man said laughing at the obvious lie, "even if you're almost as blind as me." 

"How long have you been here?" Riley asked cautiously. "How long has this been going on?"

"I've been here for exactly two-hundred and thirteen days now," the man said turning serious, " and tortured every single one of them. I'm sorry you're here, stranger. This is a horrible place to exist. She makes every single day hell and then some. Forgive me for saying so but I hope she kills you quickly. It will be better that way."

"You sound like you've given up hope," Riley replied. "There has to be a way of escape, a way of beating her. We can get out of this."

"You should take the comedy act on the road kid," the man said in return. "The Queen doesn't make mistakes. She covers every base, misses absolutely nothing. She became a vampire because she made the first real mistake of her life without anyone to help her and now that she is one, she thinks of everything." 

Riley sat there bewildered. This Queen had quite a bit of power. Odd that such a beauty could become such a monster, and an intelligent monster at that. She did write good psyche papers now that he thought about it, but a monster, he never could have imagined. 

"Her name was Buf…" Riley started.

"Shhhhh…" the man interrupted. "Don't use that name if you value your health friend. She will make every torture worse if she hears that name and she'll make sure you do not die."

The man shifted his body a little so that his chest was facing towards Riley. "See the slash across the lower stomach area of the shirt?" Riley nodded. "The last time I used her name, she had me cut open across the lower belly. She personally played with my intestines and forced them back into me, then had me stitched up and kept alive."

Riley grimaced, almost feeling the pain of the man. She had become a monster. Vampires were monsters by nature but most didn't have this kind of power let alone the type of creativity for creating pain that she did. 

"How… ok, this is going to be a weird question but… how did she become "The Queen?" I mean, I remember her mortal. I saw her during the daytime just a few months ago. How did she become a master vampire in such a short period of time?"

The man, though eyeless, seemed to squint at this question. "Do you know what a Slayer is, stranger?"

"Is that some sort of weapon?" Riley asked not sure how this tied into his own question. 

"A Slayer is a girl… well, maybe I should start at the beginning," the man decided out loud. "Every generation, a Slayer is born, a young woman born with extraordinary powers of strength, agility, speed, and energy, among other things, whose sacred birth rite is to fight and destroy vampires and other demons and threats to humanity. They are as old as human memory and older and so all along, they have done battle with the likes of vampires and kept the earth safe. Had it not been for Slayers, this world would long ago have fallen to the dark forces that inhabit the depths of the planet."

"So Buf… I mean, the Queen, was a Slayer?" Riley asked. "Are you sure about that? I mean, sure she was beautiful and all, but she didn't look like any fighter I've ever seen."

"Trust me, she was the Slayer." The man continued. "For whatever reason, we'll never know now, she fell into the trap of a vampire known as Spike and became a vampire. For as long as mankind had kept records, this had never happened, but it happened here. Imagine this friend," he said, almost sounding excited, "a normal human becomes immensely stronger when they are reborn as vampires, correct?"

"Yeah," Riley said, catching on.

"So who knows what would happen to a reborn Slayer," he said making his point. "We know now. She is as ruthless as a Slayer is brave and even more powerful now. She commands legions of vampires and has set herself up as their Queen. She is more powerful than any vampire human kind has ever known."

Riley sat dumbfounded. He had been tracking this Queen ever since there had been rumors that she had arrived. He heard stories about her being enchanted, ancient or something beyond a normal vampire, but in reality she had simply been the girl he had a crush on in psyche class. How perfectly ridiculous. 

And this whole Slayer thing; how didn't the Initiative know about her? Why hadn't he been briefed about all this? He wasn't even sure if he believed it all. He was getting all this from some guy that was cut up, been here for God knows how long and apparently slowly going out of his mind. Maybe this guy was a nut or something, or planted here to make him believe an absurd story and give up on escape. 

"How do you know all this?" Riley finally decided to ask.

"Let's just say I've been around a very long time, stranger." The man said, leaving Riley unsatisfied.

"I said my name was Riley. Call me Riley," he said, giving up. "What's your name?"

"Hmmm," the man said shifting where he sat again. "That depends on who you ask. Here I have no name. I am dead, another plaything for the Queen. A long, long time ago, my name was Liam, but you can call me what most people called me until two-hundred and thirteen days ago. My name is Angel."

***

It was Saturday morning at Giles house. That meant that Xander had the day off of work at the rock quarry, Willow and Tara had off from school and Giles and Anya, well, they didn't do anything anyway. Saturdays also meant, ever since Buffy had died, research day. Time to dig into all the old dusty books and look for clues to beating Buffy, or at least staying a step ahead of her. 

In high school, Xander would have spasmed till he coughed up blood at the thought of spending good portions of his Saturdays reading through old texts. In recent times though, he had grown to almost enjoy it. It gave him a chance to stop swinging a pick at work, or running from vampires at night, or fighting with the others about various things. It was like, even if he found nothing, he could relax a little bit and escape from everything that usually went on around him. 

In the recent months, Xander had even learned an ancient language, well, at least partially, to help in the research mode. He knew that it definitely didn't fit his image, and considering that until Giles got a hold of him he could hardly read his assignments in English without getting a headache, it was quite an accomplishment. He had learned one of the ancient demonic languages that Giles had some books on but hadn't bothered or had time to learn, thus, making himself useful during research. Now he was able to cut down on translation time with certain texts, and while he wasn't fluent in the language or anything, he could make progress quickly through certain books. 

So there sat the group, each buried in different books. Giles was reading some of the most ancient Watcher's chronicles. Tara and Willow each had their own witchcraft books that they were deep into and in turn, Anya and Xander sat and read in demonic languages. 

"There is nothing about the Slayer in here except that Tal'Djini the Flesh-Eater thought that she was just a myth," Anya said of her book, while looking at the reference book that held the translations. "This research stuff really is worthless hunny. We should have powers like demons just to know these things. Then we wouldn't spend so many hours looking at these stuffy old books."

Xander looked at her and smiled patronizingly. Giles grunted, quite amused. Nobody in the room was really concerned with Anya's opinion of the research. All the team wanted was to find anything that had to do with the Slayer and any transformations or the like that they've been through over the years. Hopefully, sometime in the past, someone had written something that could help them, either to find a way to kill her, restore her or simply make the vampire known to them in the past as Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, powerless. Up till now, they'd had no luck. 

"Giles," Xander said, looking up from his book, "I know that no Slayer has ever become a vampire before, but have they ever transformed into anything else?"

"Honestly Xander," Giles said, looking up from his book and pushing his glasses up higher on his nose, "I really do not know. There have been so many Slayers along the way that have died young that I've got lots more research to do before I'll know what happened to them all."

Willow looked up at Tara. 

"I found a spell here that is protection against a Slayer," she said anti-climatically. "It doesn't specify on who it can be used and whether or not the Slayer has to be alive though." 

"W-well put that one d-down," Tara said reassuringly. "W-we can try it later an-and see if it works."

"It doesn't even say how long it lasts!" Willow exclaimed. "These old vampire sorcerers didn't keep very good records with their spells."

"Well, "kill and eat" never involved much of the record keeping, ya know?" Xander said, revealing a little of the old Xander. "As a matter of fact, I've never seen one of these guys ever stop after they've sucked someone dry to write down how they felt while they were doing it."

"I just mean, most sorcerers take better notes," Willow said, still upset about the poor quality of the spell. "What if it changes from person to person with how long it lasts, or what if it only works for vampires and demons, or what if it only worked on the Slayer that was alive at the time this vampire wrote this!" 

"Willow!" Giles jumped in before Willow could start another "what-if." "Just write the bloody thing down, ok?"

Without another word Willow began to write the spell down in their book of "maybes" for help with Buffy and her vampires. The rest of the crew jumped back into their books while a still distracted Anya got up to fix some midmorning coffee and doughnuts for them all. 

"Xander," Giles said, sounding shocked. "Come read this!"

***

Faith had spent the entire day angry, thinking about tearing Buffy's undead head off and watching her turn to dust. Everything in her wanted to get free now that she knew that Buffy was behind her months of torture. She had even started rocking and swinging her chains back and forth in frustration. She felt like a little kid that just couldn't sit still. 

After hours of new fire and new anger, Faith saw Buffy come around the corner again, dressed in black leather pants and boots and a skin-tight black top. This time see didn't faint, she got angrier. 

"You whore! You little b*! I'm gonna kill you!" Faith screamed in anger. Her whole body was twitching with desire to tear Buffy apart. 

Buffy looked up at Faith and smiled the warmest smile her cold body could muster. 

"It that any way to talk to your sister?" Buffy said so happy she was almost mocking her. "We are sisters, you know, you and I."

"I am nothing to you whore," Faith yelled again, "except the one that's going to dust your worthless a*!"

"Oh, I'm terrified," Buffy said, this time really mocking her. "You are so scary, hanging there naked by your wrists."

Buffy walked the semi-circle around the pit that Faith hung over with confidence, looking Faith up and down with amusement. 

"I remember being weak like you," she said. "Afraid of death. Afraid of losing people, things, and emotions. Now look at me. I'm a goddess, a Queen."

"You are a worthless piece of sh* your stupid whore!" Faith spit back. "Buffy was worthless and weak. You are worthless and weak."

Frowning, Buffy turned around and looked Faith in the eyes. She stood like she was completely in control, like Faith stood after a fight, like the whole world was hers. 

"You will not be so insolent soon, sister," Buffy said, still frowning. "Soon you will be my plaything, my weapon. Soon Faith will be gone and something greater will live. That's all for now," she said as she turned to leave. "I'll see you later, sister."

"F* you!" Faith screamed after her as she left. "F* you, _Buffy_! _Buffy Summers_!"

Left alone and angry again Faith went back to her swinging and thinking, waiting for her chance to strike back and turn her "sister" to dust. That was, of course, if she could find a way out of these chains.

***

So, what do you guys think about Part 2? Good? Bad? Frustrating? Let me tell you guys how much I labored over this one. I musta re-written every part like three times. Goodness… Well, Part 3 is going to contain quite a bit of the meat of the story so it'll be even longer and will probably take me a little bit to get out so bear with me guys. The rest is coming. Oh yeah! And give me feedback, please. I want to know what you think. Even if it's just to flame me, I want feedback! See you all soon!

~Saint


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